Larry Weiss misreads me. I said that no commentator, including his good self, has addressed the fact that verbal and phrasal parallels exist between 1 Richard II and plays not attributed to Shakespeare until the 20th Century, These are Edward III, The Two Noble Kinsmen and Sir Thomas More. Not only that, but in the Two Noble Kinsmen and Sir Thomas More the parallels are found exactly in those scenes previously identified by the style critics as Shakespeare. So the process is mutually confirming.

I have never claimed that parallel phrases clinch the matter but without them there would be no case. What proves my thesis the quality of the writing.

Brian Vickers has introduced a “four-word string” test for attribution, and run the Works and other plays through a plagiarism program. I invite him to test 1 Richard II.